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M6500 Trackpad Freezes with palm on palmrest
I recently purchased a Dell M6500. The machine so far has been great...EXCEPT for an annoying problem with the trackpad. When I rest my left palm on the palm rest, and try to navigate with the trackpad with my right hand, the cursor will freeze or go to scroll mode, or trip the left mouse button.
I had Dell replace the palm rest and track pad, and at first it seemed to fix the problem. However the old problem has returned after the machine warms up a bit.
I suspect that the weight of my left palm resting on the palm rest is depressing the palmrest and trackpad just enough to interfere with the trackpads proper operation. I did place a stiffener plate on the top of the track pad, and that helped considerably.
Is this just a design flaw? (palm rest material is too thin or flexible, or the trackpad is not supported well enough underneath.)
Am I not suppose to rest my palms on the palm rests? (that seems oximoronish)
Do I permanently fasten some stiffener plates on or under the palm rests?
Hmmmmmm?
Any other thoughts or ideas?
Stewb81
3 Posts
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June 26th, 2010 20:00
I'm having the same problems with my BRAND NEW M6500... The trackpad doesn't track well (skips and/or stops) and the scroll mode (side-to-side and up-down) stops working. I didn't associate the problem with the palm rests, although I guess it's possible. I figured it was a heat related issue.
VERY ANNOYING!
Stewb81
3 Posts
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July 4th, 2010 09:00
Nato is right. The slightest amount of pressure on the left palmrest causes the trackpad to stop working when the Synaptics drivers are installed. Without the Synaptics driver, this doesn't happen but then you lose side scrolling...
pipa1234
8 Posts
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August 25th, 2010 15:00
There are many other users with similar palmrest/touchpad problems. See: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19335365/19740287.aspx#19740287
Nato14
12 Posts
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October 22nd, 2010 13:00
This is still a problem after 3 new touch pads, and a new keyboard.
I did notice when the last touch pad was installed that there is virtually no support for the left side of the touch pad. Hmmmm? I suspect that the weight of the hand distorts the touch pad surface, causing it to malfunction.
Supposedly Dell has a revised touchpad out there...somewhere...that is suppose to fix this and some other issues.
I won't hold my breath.
KaptKirk
1 Message
0
January 12th, 2011 09:00
We have had the same problem with several of our M6500's (at least 6 machines). However, in all cases once the touchpad and palm rest was replaced it solved the problem. It is true that if you put excessive pressure on the left palm rest you can force the problem, but i have not had any lockups in normal usage since the touchpad.